


Better Left Unsaid

by TheBeckster



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Korkie Kryze is a Kenobi, Light Angst, Obi-Wan/Satine is mentioned but no actual ship content happens in the story, Off-screen Relationship(s), Sorry guys that's just how the story ended up working, Teen Pregnancy, teenagers were in a relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:34:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26567404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBeckster/pseuds/TheBeckster
Summary: Satine chose Mandalore. Obi-Wan chose the Jedi. They are young. Their futures, their duties are more important than their hearts. She believes the sting of lost love will fade in time, and it does, but something else grows to take its place.AKA Korkie Kryze is definitely Obi-Wan's son, but nobody talks about that. Even Satine.
Relationships: Korkie Kryze & Satine Kryze, Obi-Wan Kenobi/Satine Kryze, Qui-Gon Jinn & Satine Kryze
Comments: 7
Kudos: 136





	Better Left Unsaid

**Author's Note:**

> I just wanted to explore what might have happened if Korkie Kryze really was Obi-Wan's son, why Obi-Wan never knew, how Satine became known to the boy as Auntie, and where that mysterious other sibling came from (cuz we all know he sure as hell isn't Bo-Katan's son).

Saying goodbye was difficult. They were too young, too inexperienced to put their feelings into the correct words. Instead they stood there, staring into each other’s eyes. Satine knew she would never forget that mesmerizing shade of blue-green. She would never forget him _._

She hoped Obi-Wan wouldn’t forget her.

They had been granted permission for a semi-private farewell. Qui-Gon and the Mandalorians stood a ways away and let the teenagers have a moment. Because in a few moments more, they would no longer just be teenagers. Satine would be a fully realized Duchess, the leader of an entire planet. Obi-Wan would be a Jedi.

Their words were quiet and stilted; a more emotional goodbye had already been done. Now was for show; for returning to life as normal. They were no longer fugitives and refugees. They had responsibilities, and futures. And they both knew that those responsibilities and futures could no longer be sacrificed for the desires of their hearts.

Satine’s words felt empty as she spoke them; platitudes and gratitude that nobody would think twice about if they were overheard. Inside, her heart screamed, begging her mouth to form the words she so desperately wanted to say. “ _Don’t go. Stay with me._ ”

But she couldn’t. She couldn’t do that to him. She wouldn’t do it to herself. She could see in his eyes, hear in his own unspoken words that he was waiting for her to ask. All she had to do was give the word.

Instead she said, “Mandalore needs me.”

She dropped his hands and turned away from him to her senators and advisors and new guards and protectors. She held her head high, and called upon her training to keep her face calm and her eyes dry.

Obi-wan would understand her choice.

She was the Duchess of Mandalore; her life was now in service to the people.

Much like the path of a Jedi.

There was much to do to rebuild a war-torn planet. More often than not, Satine was left too exhausted to think about anything else by the end of the day. The sting of lost love was beginning to fade as the days passed – quite unlike the venom-mite scar that Satine was certain would never truly fade.

Satine hardly even clocked the early symptoms. Constant exhaustion was easily explained away by her day-to-day work. An irregular cycle could be caused by the sheer amount of stress she had been under for the last year. It was the persistent nausea that was tricky to nail down. With her food carefully checked and obsessively prepared, it couldn’t be explained as food poisoning or a recently developed intolerance. And even on days when she ate nothing, she still felt ill.

When the pregnancy was confirmed, it was kept very quiet.

There was no sense in stirring up a new scandal a scant couple of months into Satine’s reign. And she wouldn’t keep the child anyways. At seventeen years of age, there was already enough doubt stacked against her and her ability to rule. Adding a bastard child to the mix would practically guarantee another bloody revolution. Mandalore was too fragile to have The Duchess’s rule questioned.

It was hidden easily enough. And Satine was comforted to know that her child, her son, would be kept within the clan. He would be a Kryze. He would still be in her life. Strangers wouldn’t take her son away and whisk him off to a far corner of the planet, and raise him in any number of ways. She had an older brother, though they were not related by blood, he was of Clan Kryze and they had grown up together. He and his husband would happily raise her child.

As her child grew, she couldn’t help but think of his father. She lost a lot of sleep wondering who her son would take after. Would he look like her? Would he look like him? If he took after his father in the ways of the Force would the Jedi come for him?

What would they do if they knew her son was the child of a Jedi? Such things weren’t allowed, but… she wasn’t exactly roping Obi-Wan into this. She had considered at least once daily, trying to contact Obi-Wan, to find some way to tell him what had happened. But she never got beyond considering it.

She was giving her son up for her political duty. Surely Obi-Wan would do the same for his Jedi duty.

Officially speaking, Satine wouldn’t even have a son. On his birth certificate, she would be listed as ‘surrogate,’ her brother and his husband would be the legal parents.

Maintaining appearances grew more difficult as her forty weeks progressed, but eventually it became acceptable for The Duchess to take some personal time with her family. There was a new baby to see, after all. Or there would be any day now.

Her family’s estate was secluded enough, for the first time since she began to show, Satine felt comfortable not hiding. Things weren’t exactly perfect, given the circumstances, but she was surrounded by family. She had their support. And as she waited impatiently for the first signs of labor, she entertained the thought of coming back many years later. If she found the right person, having legitimate children didn’t sound entirely terrible. And if, in the daydreams she allowed herself, the right person happened to have blue-green eyes and reddish hair, what harm could there be in it?

Her son came into the world almost exactly at midday. After a long night and morning of labor, Satine finally held him in her arms, and heard him cry, and held his hands. He was perfect. Absolutely perfect.

He looked enough like her to be indisputably a Kryze, but Satine saw much of his father in him. Not that anybody else knew. While they had been told who the father was, none of them had ever met Obi-Wan. And scant as his hair was, Satine was sure the fine baby-blonde fuzz on his head would turn red as he got older, and his eyes wouldn’t change much from the mesmerizing baby-blue.

Satine had let her brother name his son. Korkie was fitting, an old family name.

The Jedi came a few days after Korkie was born. Satine shouldn’t have been surprised that it was Qui-Gon who came to her, but she felt a sudden icy shock of fear upon seeing her old protector. It had only been nine months since she saw him last, and it felt like a lifetime.

“Is Obi-Wan with you?” she asked immediately.

“No.”

“Will you tell him?”

“Tell him what?” Qui-Gon asked, his tone enigmatic in the way Satine knew he was giving her a chance to lie, to protect herself, or maybe to protect Obi-Wan.

Satine hadn’t lied yet, she wasn’t about to start now. Besides, she knew Qui-Gon wasn’t stupid, and he hadn’t been blind to the times when she and Obi-Wan managed to ‘sneak off’ beneath his nose. “Korkie is his son… biologically at least. His fathers are my brother and his husband. I’m not even his mother anymore, I’m just a surrogate.”

Satine looked down from Qui-Gon’s intense gaze; he always gave her the impression that he could see right through her. After a long moment he asked, “Do you want me to tell Obi-Wan?”

“I… I don’t know,” Satine admitted with a shrug. “I made my choices based off my life and responsibilities. I had to. Obi-Wan doesn’t even know… would ignorance be bliss in his case? Would he become a better Jedi never knowing he has a son?”

Qui-Gon had no answer for her. Satine released a long breath before saying, “I already decided not to tell him. I leave it up to you if you decide what you do.”

Qui-Gon laughed, “A politician’s answer, but fair enough. May I see him?”

Satine led Qui-Gon to the nursery where Korkie was napping. She left him sleeping, and Qui-Gon made no move to touch the baby. He simply watched Korkie for a silent moment, before turning to leave.

Satine waited until she closed the nursery door silently behind her before blurting out, “Why are you here? Why _you_?”

“Korkie’s bloodwork was flagged in the medical grid. His midichlorian count is high enough for him to be Force Sensitive. The Order thought you would rather see a familiar face.”

“So what does that mean?”

“Should you and his fathers agree to it, we would induct Korkie into the Order when he is older. He would become a Jedi.”

“Oh,” Satine’s mouth said.

“ _Please, not Korkie!_ ” her heart screamed. “ _Don’t take him away from me too!”_

Satine elected to not join the meeting between Korkie’s fathers and Qui-Gon. He was their son, not hers. The decision would be left to them. Instead, she retreated to the nursery and spent every possible moment with her son. She would have to return to Sundari soon. She would once again have to be Duchess Satine. The thought of having to say goodbye to Korkie just to return to work was enough to make her cry. The thought of losing him to the Jedi Order forever was enough to break her.

They decided Korkie would not join the Jedi. There were logical reasons – he was the first born of the next generation of clan Kryze – and then there were emotional reasons – they loved the boy too much to dream of letting him go. Privately, after Qui-Gon had left, Satine’s brother confided that he couldn’t let the Jedi take her son. She had already given him up once.

Satine was only given two weeks to recover before she had to return to Sundari. It wasn’t enough, it never would be enough, but she had her duty to her people. Mandalore was more important than her.

Time passed. Satine saw Korkie only a handful of times a year, and each time marveled at how quickly he was growing, how much he was learning. Once visit he was barely crawling, when she saw him next he was walking, and the next time he was talking. She watched him grow up from a distance, known to him as Auntie Satine. But he was loved, doted upon, by his family. He lacked nothing under the care of his parents and the remainder of her clan. Eventually, her heart stopped aching every time she saw him, and began to fill with contentment. This was the best life her son could have wished for.

When he began showing interest in politics, she was there and ready to show him the ropes. When he was accepted to the Sundari Academy, she opened her home to Korkie for those nights he wanted to escape his dormitory. She began seeing him more often than his fathers, though they made plenty of visits. It felt right, having her on in her home.

Again she found herself indulging in daydreams. She’d had little luck or interest in romance ever since becoming Duchess. She never found the right person. Quite frankly, she hadn’t looked very hard. Duchess of Mandalore was a full time job, not conducive to marriages or raising children. Most political leaders she knew didn’t have children.

Korkie was old enough to be mostly independent. He didn’t need her to feed or clothe him and make sure he was doing his school work and getting enough sleep.

Satine knew, as she saw the incredible young man he was growing to become, she had made the right decision. She didn’t have any regrets.

That was until Regret came calling in the form of one peacekeeper turned general with red hair and blue-green eyes.

He looked directly at Korkie and didn’t notice anything. Satine almost wanted to tell him, but she had come to learn over the last fifteen years some things were better left unsaid.


End file.
